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This is part 1 of the series: 5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches.

Listening to first-time entrepreneurs talk about their competitive advantages is as predictably invalid as the local weatherman’s 10-day forecast.

Between this blog and reviewing applications to Capital Factory I see hundreds of pitches a year. Every pitch has a section on competitive advantages, and quite literally 95% of the time the claimed competitive advantages are pathetic, unoriginal, and not really advantages at all.

The first clue that your competitive advantages aren’t actual advantages is that everyone else on Earth claims those advantages too!

P.S. Next week I’ll talk about what are real competitive ..read more

If someone comes to your door wearing a hard hat and a lab coat, watch out.

Chances are it’s a salesperson who wants to replace or upgrade your rented water heater. The “uniform” is designed to make you think you’re dealing with a technician working for your local gas or electrical utility.

Today’s column, the most emailed story of the day at the Star’s website, talks about the scare tactics used by these persistent pests.

One commenter also mentioned the deceptive duds they wear.

They appear at the door dressed in one of those fluorescent yellow halters with the orange X that road workers wear, with an aluminum clipboard in hand to lend credibility, and say “I’m here to replace your water heater”.

This is the same gear ..read more

I did a column yesterday about those in-your-face bank commercials and why they’re getting so weird.

You know, the two grumpy old men (TD Canada Trust) and the dysfunctional couples (Scotiabank). I couldn’t find the real Scotiabank ad on YouTube, so I’ve linked to a parody.

But there’s one I missed that’s pretty offensive, BMO and the worry doll. A reader mentioned it and I think it’s a mystery why any advertising exec approved it.

Here are some nasty comments I found online about these North Americans griping about their “investmentitos” while shopping at a third world market:

I hate this commercial. Spoilt first world people with enough money to invest (and travel) condescending to the local vendor (who probably lives on a few dollars a week) ..read more

There are two maxims that we have been trained to regard as true, the first of which is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and the second is we don’t get something for nothing. Many people are skeptical of free debt consolidation services and they should be.

When choosing a free debt consolidation service, people need to be mindful of the company that they are using. Making sure that the company is BBB certified and legitimate. The Internet is a free for all, and free debt consolidation services are probably not for real. Even the nonprofit debt consolidation companies charge people a monthly fee to help them consolidate debt and pay off their balances.

Red flags to look for when interviewing companies ..read more

Free debt consolidation is a misnomer that does not really exist. These services might be provided at lower than normal charges, and the charges are minimal so as to be a non-issue. Hence, they are called free grants.

Creditors pay these companies a part of the loan as commission generally, to maintain these services. Hence this is not then charged from the debtor. It is normally seen that the consolidation companies charge the debtor a flat fee for these services. At times they also charge a commission. These charges are generally based on factors such as, the credit rating of the debtor as also the volume of debt, and the amount of loan that is being arranged.

The free debt consolidation does not involve such fees, except ..read more